Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The end of the beginning

At long last, we have received our TA and will be leaving for China very soon.

I don't really know what to say or to write about this. Perhaps it's because I've been working a lot of OT lately and am rather tired, but when my wife told me that our agency was starting to schedule our consular appointment in anticipation of the imminent arrival of the magic document, I just grunted and went on about my business. There was no particular feeling of elation, triumph, relief, or anything other than a vague sense of, "Well, it's about time."

My perspective has been changing a great deal over the past few weeks. My horizon has shrunk. Where I used to spend much of my time thinking about the years ahead ("Hmmm... What grad school should she go to?"), now I'm thinking rather more about assembling the crib, "baby-proofing" the house, packing, and just surviving the bloody long plane flight. And... D-Day.


If nothing goes wrong, I will be a father in less than two weeks. All the waiting and hoping, the paperwork and approvals, the worries and frustrations, are coming to the final moment when, in a city on the other side of the world, a little girl will become my daughter, and I will become her father.


Fear not: for I am with thee:
I will bring thy seed from the east,
and gather thee from the west;
I will say to the north, Give up;
and to the south, Keep not back:
bring my sons from far,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth...
Isaiah 43
The first photo we had of her, December 16, 2013


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